Customer Reviews

In My Lifetime (Repackaged)

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4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This a a wonderful gift to Diamondheads everywhere. IN MY LIFETIME is a musical biography with little tidbits of information which the artist shares with his fans. It's fun listening to the original cuts to my old favorites as well as the early demos and reading in Neil's own words how the songs came about, etc. Until I bought this set I didn't realize that the demo of "Cherry, Cherry" was released instead of the "official" recording which used drums & horns. Both versions are included in this set as well as demos of other songs from 1958 when Neil was just 17 years old. There are 70 songs in all, a real treasure. There is so much here including the notes, pictures & discography that it took me two evenings to listen to and read everything - and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. If you're a Neil Diamond fan this is a must for your collection.

Even in the late 70's/early 80's when my hair was fuschia & I wore safety pins in my ears, I still loved Neil Diamond. He's never been "cool" or "hip", he's the kind of artist your parents like too (my father is who introduced me to Diamond back when I was 7 or 8) but his songwriting talent is inargueable.

This is a songwriter who's career dates back to the late, great Brill Building. Over 40 years later, he's still going strong & selling more concert tickets than ever. There's not many pop artists who can make that claim! Even people who don't like Neil Diamond can sing along to any number of his songs.

"In My Lifetime" is the definitive Diamond collection. For my money, the 2nd disc is the best, containing my favorite period of Diamond's career (the 70's). The 1st disc is also good from "Cherry Cherry" (song 11) thru it's end. Personally I could live without the 3rd disc which cover Diamond's collaborative efforts including "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" & "Heartlight". You may disagree however; it all depends on when you first discovered his music. What isn't in dispute is the richness of his voice, that wonderfully comforting sound you've heard most of your life. The arrangements of his songs can't be faulted either, & the musicians he has used most of his career have always been the best.

To my mind, the main problem with this set is the amount of material. Although collectors might be interested in Diamond's early demos, most of us aren't. Personally I have no need to hear the original cassette demo of "Beautiful Noise" with his young daughter singing along. These are minor quibbles however, & anyone with a moderately priced CD changer can bypass the archival material.

The packaging of "In My Lifetime" truly shines. A good introductory essay by a writer for Rolling Stone lets you know Neil's a "mensch" while Diamond himself takes you song by song thru the collection to reminisce about his thoughts when the song in question was originally written or recorded, relating anecdotes, & generally filling in background that will make old favorites sound new again. His writing is filled with gentle humor & self-deprecation. It's nice that an artist of his stature doesn't take himself too seriously.

So go ahead: satisfy your inner geek & get "In My Lifetime". You'll never need to buy another Neil Diamond collection if you do!

This is a great collection of songs from the legendary Neil Diamond. Of course, there are some tunes that should be here, but every artist compilation that's put out today has loop holes here and there. My two biggest complaints are the following. First, although I thought it was great that a good portion of the Jonathan Livingston Seagull soundtrack was included, I can't believe that they didn't include the regular 6 minute album version of "Be." Instead, you have the 3 minute tune that is sung differently and is simply not nearly as good. Second, the orchestrational strings that open the beginning of "Hello Again" have been edited out! It's like they cut the song short or something. Wierd. Oh, and the 12 Greatest Hits version of "Shilo" is much better than the one on this compilation. I think it's great though to hear the unreleased tracks, as well as Neil's original recordings of "I'm A Believer" and "Red Red Wine." If you're a Neil fan, this is certainly something you need to add to your collection.

This is to date the definitive Neil Diamond collection for the simple fact that not only does it sound great, but for the first time ever, Sony cross-licensed the original masters of 14 of Neil's greatest hits from his former label, Uni (now Universal Music Group), and included most of the original studio recordings of his even earlier hits from the Bang! label. The Bang! catalogue was acquired by Sony in the early 1980's, and they issued an essential 12 track album (The Early Classics), and all those titles appear on In My Lifetime but not all of them are the original studio versions. I suppose that was done to continue to make Early Classics required for those of us who require the original versions.

There is a lot of previously rare or unreleased material on this mostly chronologically arranged collection. I have always felt that Diamond seemed to lose his edge around the late 70's even though he continued to have some nice easy listening hits, he went from being a sure thing to one you'd want to be cautious about before you spent the money on his latest works. Even worse, it seemed that by the late 1980's early 90's, he lost his vocal range. I saw him in concert around 1988 and was shocked by how bad his voice was as well as how he seemed bent on convincing the audience that UB 40's (then)recent #1 cover of "Red Red Wine" was his and that he was taking it back by doing it their way. Believe me, his original way was much better. I was embarrassed for him. After the concert, I had all but written Neil off as someone I would not be buying in the future.

I am happy to say that I was very pleasantly surprised in 1992 when he did Tennessee Moon. It was the first new Neil Diamond album in a great while that was fresh and written for the limitations of his older voice. When I bought In My Lifetime, I was also impressed with the new recordings. I had some of my lost faith in Neil Diamond restored. Since then he is still putting out a lot of kitsch, but also works that seem like he still can be serious when he sets his mind to it (Three Chord Opera). If Neil Diamond did not have co-ownership (with Sony) of most of his master recordings, I would say shame on Sony for anthologising him to death, but apparently, he gives his approval. The problem with all the other collections that purport to be career-spanning is that none of them use ALL of the original hit masters except this one. If you want the real Neil in one package -- look no further than In My Lifetime.

I can't say that I'm a huge Neil Diamond fan (I don't have a single album of his, in fact). But when I recently heard "Cracklin' Rose" and "Sweet Caroline" back-to-back on the radio, I realized the man has some truly great songs, which eventually lead me to this collection.

"In My Lifetime" (71 tracks, 227 min.) is thankfully organized chronolgically, so that one can follow and understand the musical evolution of Neil Diamond. Not surprisingly CD1 is the most interesting of the collection, with the early demos and songs, near-hits and finally, hits. Be aware, 20 of the 27 tracks on CD1 are in mono. If CD1 is the most interesting, then CD2 is the "greatest hits" of the greatest hits. Blockbuster song after blockbuster song rolls along. Fascinating is "Dry Your Eyes", Neil's contribution to "The Last Waltz" farewell concert of the Band. You didn't know that Neil was part of that show? Me neither. Included also is a 5 song suite from the "Jonathan Livingstone Seagul" concept album, wich I owned and loved in the good ol' vinyl days. CD3 starts with the hits from "The Jazz Singer" remake (America, Love on the Rocks, Hello Again), and coast along following the lines of "Heartlight", which is admittedly not my favorite Diamond stuff.

If there is one surprise in this collection, it's that there is nothing in here from either the original and very successful "Hot August Night" live album, which I believe is Neil's biggest selling album ever, or any other of his live albums such as Live at the Greek and HAN 2. That aside, this collection gives the proper due to a truly gifted singer-songwriter.

With the exclusion of Neil Diamond's 'Stones', this set has all the important Neil Diamond songs. It kinda goes through Neil Diamond's career chronologically beginning with the title track 'In My Lifetime' and then moving to the first song that Neil wrote, Hear Them Bells. This song clearly points the way to a career for Neil writing catchy pop tunes. The set moves through his years at Bang records where he wrote rock and bubble gum pop. Then on into his MCA years where Neil developed a little more independence as a writer and we begin to hear more introspective lyrics and personal songs. A bulk of the material on these three CDs comes from Neil's years at Columbia Records where he still maintains a contract, along with a brief stint from Capitol Records which The Jazz Singer was released on. Throughout the compilation, one gains an insight into a career that has been phenominal. You realize, my gosh this man wrote so many songs that have been part of American culture. He is an icon, a symbol of America in a way. His songs have meant much to us over the years. This box set presents the man and his music.

This is great for the early (Bang) period - original, untampered-with mono mixes all; but the great MCA/Uni years are over too quickly (it cost 'em to liscence the songs!) and we don't get to hear "Stones" which is one of my faves. There's a nice truncated suite of J. Livingstone Seagull tunes, but the third disc doesn't hold up so well - in fact, after The Jazz Singer, Mr Diamond's muse seems to have deserted him for good and most of this last disc is awful, or worse, plain embarrasing.

I never really knew a lot of Neil Diamond songs. I knew songs that have completely infiltrated American culture like GIRL YOU'LL BE A WOMAN YOU or SWEET CAROLINE but didn't know too many other songs. But I did know the song THE STORY OF MY LIFE which is one my favorites of all times, and I decided to buy a cd with this song. Well, there aren't too many options out there and I decided to get this whole set of Neil Diamond works. I didn't regret it.

The first disc is my favorite, not just because some of his most popular songs are on there, but a lot of his early work is so tinged with 50s pop. HEAR THEM BELLS is an example of that, and it's one of my favorite songs on the entire compilation. But all 3 cds are great, and it's wonderful for long-time Diamond fans as well as newer ones.

I used to think Neil Diamond was cheesy, but as I have matured now and look back on my life, I realize just how prolific this master storyteller has been and continues to be to this day. There is not a period of my life that I cannot place in direct relation to a Neil Diamond song, and I'll bet that is true for many of you too.

This wonderful boxed set, is an impressive collection of the very best of Neil's work from the late 50's, through the present, remastered and packaged with a nice picture book to boot.

It is great joy to hear these classic songs, sounding better than ever and bringing back all those memories that they are so indelibly attached to.

I highly recommend this collection for any serious music lover.

I am probably the youngest reviewer that's going to review this box set. I'm 27 and, though I was a mere 7 years old at the time, I loved The Jazz singer soundtrack. Now, I know many people feel that Neil Diamond is cheesy like John Denver and Barry Manilow, but I like all three. For me, this box set has everything someone my age would like from Neil. Songs like "Cherry Cherry", "Solitary Man", "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon", "Red, Red Wine", "Holly Holy", "Sweet Caroline", "Song Sung Blue", "Crunchy Granola Suite", "I Am, I Said", "Forever in Blue Jeans", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", "America", "Love on the Rocks" and "Heartlight", plus many more. I do think that the third disc is flimsy. Neil's 80's material lacks something to be desired, but none-the-less this box set is the only place to find all his hits from all three decades. This is a must have for any rock collector.